Actions and Words
by thelittleturtleduck
Summary: "Come here, baby girl." Aang gives Kya a bit of advice after she faces a few bullies at her school. But what bothers her is completely different from what he expected.


A/n: In light of all the bullying that has been taking place recently, I decided to write this. Please leave your thoughts. I know I wrote the Bumi one where he's bullied a few days ago, but this one is a bit different.

Disclaimer: I don't own "Avatar: The Last Airbender" or "The Legend of Korra".

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Aang's heart nearly broke as he spotted his 7 year old daughter walking down the stone steps of Republic City's Academy. Her face was streaked with a moist liquid. She had been crying.

The cool air nipped at her face, causing the small child to grimace as the tears chilled her cheeks. She pulled her midnight blue robes closer to herself and gripped the strap of her backpack even tighter. She just wanted to go home.

Kya did not speak as she approached her father, causing the Avatar to worry even more. His daughter usually was bursting with life as she left the Academy, now she had an expression on her face that was equivalent to the walking dead.

Aang didn't say a word as she grabbed for his hand quickly, cerulean eyes focused on the ground. Her tanned fingers clutched his tightly, her other hand reaching up to brush away the stray tears that still lay on the skin of her cheeks.

They caught the ferry back to the island, winter slowly settling in over the scenary as the sky took on a solemn grey color. The bay's water had taken on a murky shade, a complete contrast to what it had been like during the weeks of summer. The whole scene was desolate.

The Avatar and his daughter were somber.

Upon reaching the island, a gaggle of lemurs raced to greet the little girl who used to play games with them every day before having to return to school. Kya barely gave them a small smile before walking up the path to where the housing temples lay.

The Avatar absentmindedly scratched one of the creatures behind the ear, but his mind rest on the well being of the girl who was usually so full of life, but was acting so reserved and depressed.

A grey fog settled over the island, even the crazed laughter of a young Bumi couldn't break through the thick mist. The feeling in the cold air was absolutely suffocating, but perhaps that was just from the lack of a usual cheerful presence.

She didn't burrow herself in her room like he had expected, like her mother usually did when she was upset. The girl went and sat on the edge of the stone fountain that lay in the middle of the side training area. It was where her mother had taught her the first basics of her waterbending and healing. It was where she felt important and talented.

Right now, she felt anything but those things.

The Avatar walked over to her, not truly expecting her to tell him anything. She just needed to know that he was there, that he would do anything in his power to put a smile back on her face. She crossed her legs and dipped her slender fingers in the water.

A few minutes passed.

"Daddy?" Her voice was quiet, detached, as if she hadn't even meant to let the word escape her mouth. If that was her intention though, she didn't show it and kept her clear eyes on the patterns her fingers drew in the water below.

"Yes?"

Kya pursed her thin lips unsurely, brows furrowing slightly as she tried to put her thoughts into words. She finally found a way to word her question. The simplest way she could ask it.

"Do you think I'm pretty?"

Aang was a bit taken aback by the random question, but he quickly gave the little girl an affirming nod, "Of course, Kya. You're absolutely beautiful. But, why are you asking that?"

His daughter shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know."

They sat in silence for a few moments, both lost in their own thoughts. Kya's mind going over the events of the day, and Aang's mind completely dedicated to figuring out what Kya was thinking.

"Lee called me ugly today."

The Avatar's brows furrowed at this, his heart clenching tightly at the thought of someone calling his little girl anything but beautiful, "Who's Lee?"

"This boy in my class."

Aang shook his head, turning so that he could look directly at Kya. He pulled his legs up on the edge of the fountain, mirroring his daughter's position.

"Kya, he was just trying to upset you. Don't listen to him."

The small waterbender shook her head, dark brown braids flailing about as they danced across her shoulders, her features appeared angry, "No, Daddy. I didn't listen to him! That's the point!"

Aang opened his mouth, then closed it again, not entirely sure of what his daughter was getting at, "What do you mean?"

Kya heaved a sigh, looking directly at her father, voice low again, "I ignored him. But then his friends joined in, and they were saying the same thing too."

The Avatar looked sadly at his daughter, "Sweetheart, I don't care who said it, that doesn't make it true."

The child held up her hand to stop her father's reassurances. The man almost laughed at the look of annoyance on her face, but she looked downright serious, "Daddy, stop."

Aang held his hands up in defense as he motioned for her to continue with whatever she had to say.

The young girl sighed softly this time, bringing a small hand up to toy with a strand of hair that lay on the side of her face, "I ignored his friends, too. Even when they started pulling at my braids and taunting me. I kept quiet. I didn't want to start a fight with anyone, so I just let them go on."

Kya's eyes flew downcast a moment, before they looked back up into her father's stormy ones, fresh tears now gathering within the corners of her eyes, "What upset me was that when I looked up, I noticed that all the other kids in the room were ignoring them too. All my friends were painting as if nothing was happening. They didn't do anything to stop it."

The child then sniffled, her frame shaking slightly as the emotion caught back up to her, "I went and told the teacher, finally, but she said that since she hadn't seen it, she couldn't take my word for it. She asked the whole class whether they had seen the boys pulling my hair and bullying me."

Her tone changed swiftly, softening yet holding so much power and emotion, "Every single student in my class shook their head no."

Aang's heart clenched again as Kya's breath became quick, her tears falling a bit faster now, "I just don't understand how they could sit back and watch people do that to someone else. If it had been one of them, I would have been the first person to tell the teacher or to do something about it."

The Avatar nodded, holding his hands out to Kya, "Come here, baby girl."

Though growing, the child could still fit in the confines of her father's lap. Her feet lay in front of her stretched out on the stone of the fountain as his tattooed arms wrapped tightly around her, the fabric of his autumn colored robes protecting her from the chill of the wind.

"I know you would be the first to do something about it," His voice was quiet, his hand absently playing with the ends of her braids as he spoke the words that came naturally to him, "I'm so happy that you are like that, because many people are the complete opposite. Many people would prefer to pretend that things like that don't happen around them. They walk around in a daze where everything is perfect and no one gets hurt."

He looked down at her when he said this, grey eyes connecting with her cerulean ones, "But hurt is real, isn't it?"

His daughter nodded, her tears pausing as she looked up at her dad with genuine pain in her eyes.

"Imagine how much better the world would be if everyone stood up for each other, if everyone ceased to disagree. What if all those years ago, one person would have warned the air temples of what was to come? That one person could have altered everything."

Aang's smile was small now, this memory causing him great anguish, "But the world will never be like that. If it were, than there would be no use for the Avatar anymore."

Kya pouted at that, "The world doesn't sound very fun without you, though."

The Avatar chuckled at the look on his daughter's face, recognizing the child in front of him more and more as his words sunk in, "It would be nice though if it could keep its own balance, but I'm glad I can help. That's how you should look at it, Kya. Not everyone is meant to be balance keepers and not everyone has the courage to speak up, but you do. You can change the course of a lot of things with your actions and words."

The little girl's face slowly became a smile as she nodded, "I guess that's true."

Aang dropped a kiss to her forehead, a hand gently removing the moisture from her face from earlier, "I promise it's true."

The fog began to lift from the ground as the afternoon settled in, the dreary air carrying an anguish that had been dissolved with the mere help of someone's words.


End file.
